On June 23, 2016, Britons voted to leave the European Union in a historic referendum, voting 52 to 48 percent in favour. Both major parties, the Conservatives and Labour, promised to get behind the vote and respect the will of the people. However, more than three years later, it is still unclear when, how and if the country will leave the bloc.

Boris Johnson moved into Downing Street at the end of July and, against all odds, managed to renegotiate an exit deal with Brussels.

But last month, a string of rebel MPs did not back his timetable, forcing him to call a general election and extend the Brexit deadline to January 31.

Now, with less than 30 days until Britons go to the polls, uncertainty continues to persist.

If Jeremy Corbyn’s party wins the election, not only could Brexit be at risk but so too could the England’s union with Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

Last week, Philip Rycroft, the permanent secretary of the Department for Exiting the EU 2017-2019, launched a stark warning during a lecture organised by the Bennett Institute of Public Policy at the university of Cambridge.

Mr Rycroft claimed even if Mr Johnson gets a majority and takes Britain out fo the EU in January, there will still be a “long way to go” for Brexit.

Discussing the pressure and the challenge the Union is facing, the former top civil servant said: “The bigger issue is saying it is no longer about devolution.

“It is whether this country has a future.

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“This is a huge challenge to the make up of this Union.

“One which we are only at the beginning of sorting out.

“And on one slightly uncheerful thought, anybody who thought that in the next five or six months you might see Brexit down, I am afraid you will have to think again.

“There is a long way to go, possibly years and the pressure on the Union is not going to relent.”

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In another lecture for the Bennett Institute, Mr Rycroft further explained: “We still have no idea what our post-EU relationship would look like.

“The Brexit process has driven a disruptive trail through the life of the country that will take many years to fix. The notion that once out we can return to some sort of pre-lapsarian normal is for the birds. Just so if, against the odds, we end up through another referendum staying in.

“There is no return to the status quo ante; the world has changed, irrevocably, forever.”

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